The Power of ‘Why’ in Goal-Setting

Goal setting, goal setting, goal setting! It’s one of the most important first steps to bring positive change to your life and it’s one of my deep specialties and the most value I bring to my life coaching clients. Setting, committing, and achieving goals.

The first and foremost step to establishing a goal is to WRITE IT DOWN. Get it out of your head and onto a sheet of paper. For example, let’s say your goal is to lose weight. If this is one of your goals, then, right now, take out a long sheet of paper and, at the very top write, “I want to lose weight.”

You now have this goal out of your head and into the Universe and you can see it, right there in front of you.

Next step: underneath where you’ve written your goal (in this case we’ve written down, “I want to lose weight.”) write out the word, ‘Why?’ and then reflect on that. Why DO you want to lose weight? Take some time and really brainstorm the reasons why you want to lose weight. It’s very important to establish a powerful ‘why’ to support your goal. Otherwise, you simply have a goal and nothing to support it. Why, why, why. Why do you want to lose weight? Take a moment and write out a paragraph as to why it is you want to lose weight.

Third step: After you’ve written down your goal, and you’ve written out your strong ‘why’, underneath your why paragraph, write out the question, “How?” so that we can focus on HOW you’re going to achieve this goal. Really think about this and write out, at minimum, 10 steps on how you can achieve this goal. Write out 10 things you can commit to without any reservation to help you achieve this goal. You can write out 20 steps, you can write out 15, it’s up to you, but write out at least 10 steps to help you really dig and brainstorm what you’ll need to do to accomplish this goal.

So far you have your goal written down, you’ve established a strong and powerful ‘why’ and you’ve written out at least 10 things that show how you’re going to accomplish your goal. The last step is to go back to the top of the paper where you wrote out your goal, take your pen or pencil and scratch out the word “WANT” and replace it with the word “WILL” so that it reads, “I WILL lose weight.”

Whenever you say or write that you “want” something, you’re not pushing yourself to achieve that something, you’re simply creating a want for it. When you tell yourself (and the Universe) that you WILL do something, yourself and the Universe will take note.

Now take this sheet of paper and place it somewhere where you can view it every single day. Your fridge, your computer, your workstation, your front door, any place where you’ll see it every day so that it can serve as a reminder that this is a commitment you made with yourself.